Feds Slap $239,000 Tax Lien on Mayor Dellums

Because Oakland mayor Ron Dellums and his wife Cynthia have not settled $239,000 in federal income taxes, the IRS has filed a lien on the Dellums. At issue is tax evasion from 2005 to 2007. The amount is more than most Oakland residents earn in three years.

Mixing Dellums' personal tax problems with official business, City Hall press aide Paul Rose told East Bay Express reporter Robert Gammon that mayor Dellums and his wife admit "they have not paid as much taxes as they should have." (East Bay Express website)

Sweep it under the rug: tax evasion, medical condition, budget mess

After Dellums retired from Congress with a huge pension and health care package, he started a lobbying firm and helped health insurance corporations get into Africa. Other clients were Rolls-Royce (a military contractor) and AT&T. In the three years liened by the IRS, Dellums & Associates declared that it took in $565,000 – or more if the IRS case hinges on unreported income. (Open Secrets)

In 2007, before Dellums did a week's work as Oakland mayor, he demanded and received a 60 percent increase in the mayor's salary to $183,000 a year. In addition, Dellums spends tens of thousands of City dollars a year for personal expenses.

Yet Dellums and his wife cannot settle their tax obligation. They seem to think they are above the law. A mayor should be a leader by example, a positive role model.

The federal tax scandal adds terminal punctuation to Dellums' disastrous record as mayor of Oakland:

Release a Medical Statement Even the President of the United States gives the public a statement of his overall health by an impartial team of physicians. It's time for Oakland mayor Ron Dellums to do the same. Six months ago people who observed disturbing incidents puzzled over what was wrong with Dellums' health. Today people no longer wonder. The talk is about how far along dementia or its functional equivalent has progressed. Often the mayor is lucid (although wildly wrong, as when he proposed that the City consider hosting legal "sideshow" events). Still, when the mayor's office calls a press conference yet the mayor only appears by way of speakerphone because he is "under the weather," the incident goes onto a long list of similar evasions. Oakland residents have a right to an impartial medical report. The mayor should authorize physicians to review his overall state of health, the general nature of any chronic conditions, and the broad class of medications he requires.

• Public safety and peaceful neighborhoods are as far away as ever. After playing games with police staffing, Dellums is pushing the force well below 802 – in a city that needs at least 1,100 officers.

• City finances and basic services are in disarray. In 2008 mayor Dellums let now-disgraced city administrator Deborah Edgerly and councilmember Jean Quan, chair of the finance committee, raid City reserves. They grabbed $60 million from the till in order to keep pork flowing, even when everyone knew property tax revenues were collapsing along with the housing bubble. To erase the resulting deficit, the city council closed libraries more hours, cut park maintenance, and jacked up parking fees and citations.

Most likely, Ron Dellums, who will soon mark his 74th birthday, is not personally to blame for his mayoral and tax troubles. There is too much anecdotal evidence of dementia or a similar medical problem. Dellums' wife and a clique around the mayor, while keeping him in a bubble, are enriching themselves. They regard Oakland, its problems, and federal law with contempt.

Will the clique around Dellums destroy a man's reputation built up over three decades in Congress? The mayor needs to resign now. At the rate things are going, in fourteen more months who knows what new scandals will tarnish the Dellums legacy forever.

(Personal information removed)